Heading into his first edition at the helm of the Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff), artistic director Pierre-Yves Walder looked to land his white whale, setting his sights on a retrospective idea he’d dreamed up many years before.
“In concrete terms, I’ve wanted to do this ever since I first applied to the festival,” Walder says of Scream Queer, a pet project that reflects on Lgbtiq+ representation through the lens of the fantastic. “I wanted to explore social elements through genre, which has always been a mirror for society, a place to express certain unmentionable ideas in abstract, using metaphor to explore subjects off limits in more direct approaches.”
Showcasing 15 films curated by Walder and his team and another four selected by The xx singer Oliver Sim, this year’s centerpiece retrospective brings together camp items like “Nightmare on Elm Street II,” cult classics like the Wachowski...
“In concrete terms, I’ve wanted to do this ever since I first applied to the festival,” Walder says of Scream Queer, a pet project that reflects on Lgbtiq+ representation through the lens of the fantastic. “I wanted to explore social elements through genre, which has always been a mirror for society, a place to express certain unmentionable ideas in abstract, using metaphor to explore subjects off limits in more direct approaches.”
Showcasing 15 films curated by Walder and his team and another four selected by The xx singer Oliver Sim, this year’s centerpiece retrospective brings together camp items like “Nightmare on Elm Street II,” cult classics like the Wachowski...
- 6/23/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
“Twin Peaks” star Sherilyn Fenn has been cast as silent film star Alla Nazimova in “Silent Life,” an indie biopic about Rudolph Valentino.
Vladislav Kozlov is directing and will play Valentino in the film. The movie also stars Isabella Rossellini as Valentino’s mother, Franco Nero as Valentino’s spirit, and Terry Moore as the mourning “Lady in Black.” Paul Rodriguez and Dalton Cyr have joined the cast as an older gigolo and young Italian immigrant, respectively. Paul Louis Harrell will play Norman Kerry, Valentino’s real-life friend, and Ksenia Jarova will portray Natacha Rambova, a true love of Valentino.
Kozlov is producing the project with Natalia Dar under their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yuri Ponomarev. The script was written by Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova.
Valentino was a Hollywood superstar in the silent movie era and died unexpectedly in 1926. In “Silent Life,” a group of young journalists encounter...
Vladislav Kozlov is directing and will play Valentino in the film. The movie also stars Isabella Rossellini as Valentino’s mother, Franco Nero as Valentino’s spirit, and Terry Moore as the mourning “Lady in Black.” Paul Rodriguez and Dalton Cyr have joined the cast as an older gigolo and young Italian immigrant, respectively. Paul Louis Harrell will play Norman Kerry, Valentino’s real-life friend, and Ksenia Jarova will portray Natacha Rambova, a true love of Valentino.
Kozlov is producing the project with Natalia Dar under their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yuri Ponomarev. The script was written by Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova.
Valentino was a Hollywood superstar in the silent movie era and died unexpectedly in 1926. In “Silent Life,” a group of young journalists encounter...
- 8/3/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Twin Peaks alum Sherilyn Fenn is set in the lead role of silent film star Madame Alla Nazimova in Silent Life, an indie biopic about Rudolph Valentino (a.k.a. Hollywood’s original Latin Lover) from director Vladislav Kozlov, who will play Valentino in the film.
Fenn’s Madame Alla Nazimova, a Russian Jewish émigré from Crimea, was a popular Broadway actress due to her fierce feminist image in the pacifist drama War Brides. One of her notable films was the 1921 silent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ Camille, which she produced and starred opposite Rudolph Valentino.
Silent Life follows Valentino as he ponders the most important philosophical questions of human existence from his deathbed. In the film, Valentino sits in an imaginary empty movie theatre as he, and the audience watches his life flicker like a silent movie on the screen. After Valentino’s unexpected death in 1926, a mysterious Lady in...
Fenn’s Madame Alla Nazimova, a Russian Jewish émigré from Crimea, was a popular Broadway actress due to her fierce feminist image in the pacifist drama War Brides. One of her notable films was the 1921 silent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ Camille, which she produced and starred opposite Rudolph Valentino.
Silent Life follows Valentino as he ponders the most important philosophical questions of human existence from his deathbed. In the film, Valentino sits in an imaginary empty movie theatre as he, and the audience watches his life flicker like a silent movie on the screen. After Valentino’s unexpected death in 1926, a mysterious Lady in...
- 8/3/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Twins Peaks actress Sherilyn Fenn will star as silent film star Alla Nazimova in Silent Life.
The fantasy biopic of silent era film star Rudolph Valentino will be directed by Vladislav Kozlov, who will also star as Valentino.
Joining the previously announced cast of Isabella Rossellini, Franco Nero and Terry Moore will be Paul Rodriguez, Dalton Cyr, Paul Louis Harrell and Ksenia Jarova.
Kozlov is also producing with Natalia Dar via their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yury Ponomarev. Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova penned the screenplay that is currently filming in Los Angeles.
The fantasy biopic of silent era film star Rudolph Valentino will be directed by Vladislav Kozlov, who will also star as Valentino.
Joining the previously announced cast of Isabella Rossellini, Franco Nero and Terry Moore will be Paul Rodriguez, Dalton Cyr, Paul Louis Harrell and Ksenia Jarova.
Kozlov is also producing with Natalia Dar via their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yury Ponomarev. Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova penned the screenplay that is currently filming in Los Angeles.
Twins Peaks actress Sherilyn Fenn will star as silent film star Alla Nazimova in Silent Life.
The fantasy biopic of silent era film star Rudolph Valentino will be directed by Vladislav Kozlov, who will also star as Valentino.
Joining the previously announced cast of Isabella Rossellini, Franco Nero and Terry Moore will be Paul Rodriguez, Dalton Cyr, Paul Louis Harrell and Ksenia Jarova.
Kozlov is also producing with Natalia Dar via their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yury Ponomarev. Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova penned the screenplay that is currently filming in Los Angeles.
The fantasy biopic of silent era film star Rudolph Valentino will be directed by Vladislav Kozlov, who will also star as Valentino.
Joining the previously announced cast of Isabella Rossellini, Franco Nero and Terry Moore will be Paul Rodriguez, Dalton Cyr, Paul Louis Harrell and Ksenia Jarova.
Kozlov is also producing with Natalia Dar via their Dreamer Pictures banner, along with Yury Ponomarev. Kozlov, Dar, and Ksenia Jarova penned the screenplay that is currently filming in Los Angeles.
(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...
- 6/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Here's something for hardcore cineastes: an incredible restoration of Marcel L'Herbier's avant-garde silent feature, which looks unlike any other movie of its time. The weird story is about a Swedish engineer who wins the hand of famous singer by demonstrating a machine that can revive the dead. The film's designs are by score of famous architects and art notables of the Paris art scene circa 1924. L'Inhumaine Blu-ray Flicker Alley 1924 / Color tints / 1:33 Silent Aperture / min. / Street Date March 1, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Georgette Leblanc, Jacque Catelain, Léonid Walter de Malte, Philippe Hériat, Fred Kellerman, Robert Mallet-Stevens. Cinematography Roche, Georges Specht Art Direction, design, costumes, Claude Autant-Lara, Alberto Cavalcanti, Fernand Léger, Paul Poiret, Original Music Darius Milhaud (originally), Aidje Tafial / Alloy Orchestra Written by Pierre MacOrlan, Marcel L'Herbier, Georgette Leblanc Produced and Directed by Marcel L'Herbier
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Followers of art, architecture, literature and French art movies of the early 1920s...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Followers of art, architecture, literature and French art movies of the early 1920s...
- 2/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
After The Seventh Victim‘s disappointing returns, Val Lewton and Rko clashed over their next project. Lewton wanted a comedy, provisionally titled The Amorous Ghost, as a change of pace; studio boss Sid Rogell, Lewton’s bete noir, insisted on a sequel to Cat People, which Lewton resisted. Then Rko suggested a Universal-style monster rally, They Creep By Night, reuniting villains from past Lewton pictures. Charles Koerner rescued Lewton from this absurd prospect by pitching a maritime thriller. “Call it The Ghost Ship,” Koerner ordered. Lewton also scored a big, though past-his-prime star in Richard Dix, an Oscar nominee for Cimarron (1931).
The result is equal parts The Sea Wolf and M, with a dash of Edgar Allan Poe. Tom Miriam signs on as third officer on the ill-starred freighter Altair, ruled by Captain Stone (Richard Dix). At first Stone merely seems strict, but his homilies about authority take on a...
The result is equal parts The Sea Wolf and M, with a dash of Edgar Allan Poe. Tom Miriam signs on as third officer on the ill-starred freighter Altair, ruled by Captain Stone (Richard Dix). At first Stone merely seems strict, but his homilies about authority take on a...
- 10/29/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
'Sorrell and Son' with H.B. Warner and Alice Joyce. 'Sorrell and Son' 1927 movie: Long thought lost, surprisingly effective father-love melodrama stars a superlative H.B. Warner Partially shot on location in England and produced independently by director Herbert Brenon at Joseph M. Schenck's United Artists, the 1927 Sorrell and Son is a skillful melodrama about paternal devotion in the face of both personal and social adversity. This long-thought-lost version of Warwick Deeping's 1925 bestseller benefits greatly from the veteran Brenon's assured direction, deservedly shortlisted in the first year of the Academy Awards.* Crucial to the film's effectiveness, however, is the portrayal of its central character, a war-scarred Englishman who sacrifices it all for the happiness of his son. Luckily, the London-born H.B. Warner, best remembered for playing Jesus Christ in another 1927 release, Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, is the embodiment of honesty, selflessness, and devotion. Less is...
- 10/9/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Washington, April 17: TV series based on actresses Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo's lives are in development.
'Hung' and 'The L Word' alums Angela Robinson and Alex Kondracke, who are working with Annapurna Pictures on the project, said that they're couldn't imagine a better partner to help bring the series to life, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
The untitled drama will look at the association of the two actresses with famous figures like John Gilbert, Mercedes de Acosta, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and John Wayne, among others. (Ani)...
'Hung' and 'The L Word' alums Angela Robinson and Alex Kondracke, who are working with Annapurna Pictures on the project, said that they're couldn't imagine a better partner to help bring the series to life, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
The untitled drama will look at the association of the two actresses with famous figures like John Gilbert, Mercedes de Acosta, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and John Wayne, among others. (Ani)...
- 4/17/2014
- by Meeta Kabra
- RealBollywood.com
Annapurna Pictures is headed into the realm of scripted drama television. The company is developing an untitled drama exploring the relationships of famed Golden Age of Hollywood starlets Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich.
The show will feature notable figures of the period including John Gilbert, Mercedes de Acosta, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and John Wayne, among others.
"Hung" and "The L Word" alums Angela Robinson and Alex Kondracke are developing the show which Megan Ellison will serve as an executive producer on.
Source: The Live Feed...
The show will feature notable figures of the period including John Gilbert, Mercedes de Acosta, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and John Wayne, among others.
"Hung" and "The L Word" alums Angela Robinson and Alex Kondracke are developing the show which Megan Ellison will serve as an executive producer on.
Source: The Live Feed...
- 4/17/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Annapurna Pictures is entering the scripted TV business. The film production and finance company is working with Hung and The L Word alums Angela Robinson and Alex Kondracke for a scripted drama exploring the Golden Age of Hollywood and the intersecting lives of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. The untitled drama, which marks the company's first major television project, is in development and will be taken out to networks. It will explore the relationships of the starlets with notable figures including John Gilbert, Mercedes de Acosta, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and John Wayne, among others. Photos:
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- 4/16/2014
- by Lesley Goldberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures has earned a reputation for helping to fund films that other companies weren’t willing to risk, like Spike Jonze’s Her, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. The company is now looking to get into television, setting up an untitled project about Hollywood icons Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.Annapurna has True Blood writer Angela Robinson and The L Word’s Alex Kondracke scripting the project, which is mostly being kept under wraps in terms of content and where it might end up. That's not surprising, since the project doesn’t yet have a network or channel involved.But we can imagine there being considerable interest in a series that would delve into the lives of two such fascinating screen legends, including their rivalry and the circles in which they mixed during Hollywood’s Golden Age. People...
- 4/16/2014
- EmpireOnline
Mary Boland movies: Scene-stealing actress has her ‘Summer Under the Stars’ day on TCM Turner Classic Movies will dedicate the next 24 hours, Sunday, August 4, 2013, not to Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Esther Williams, or Bette Davis — TCM’s frequent Warner Bros., MGM, and/or Rko stars — but to the marvelous scene-stealer Mary Boland. A stage actress who was featured in a handful of movies in the 1910s, Boland came into her own as a stellar film supporting player in the early ’30s, initially at Paramount and later at most other Hollywood studios. First, the bad news: TCM’s "Summer Under the Stars" Mary Boland Day will feature only two movies from Boland’s Paramount period: the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award nominee Ruggles of Red Gap, which TCM has shown before, and one TCM premiere. So, no rarities like Secrets of a Secretary, Mama Loves Papa, Melody in Spring,...
- 8/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Paul Henreid: Actor was ‘dependable’ leading man to Hollywood actresses Paul Henreid, best known as the man who wins Ingrid Bergman’s body but not her heart in Casablanca, is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. TCM will be showing a couple of dozen movies featuring Henreid, who, though never a top star, was a "dependable" — i.e., unexciting but available — leading man to a number of top Hollywood actresses of the ’40s, among them Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, Eleanor Parker, Joan Bennett, and Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of Paul Henreid movies to be shown on Turner Classic Movies in July consists of Warner Bros. productions that are frequently broadcast all year long, no matter who is TCM’s Star of the Month. Just as unfortunately, TCM will not present any of Henreid’s little-seen supporting performances of the ’30s, e.
- 7/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
One of the Most Amazing Silent Movies (or Movies of Any Era, Period) Ever Made Tops the List of Best of Movies Released in 1921 Rex Ingram’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Metro Pictures' film version of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s epic novel -- from a scenario by the immensely powerful writer-producer June Mathis -- catapulted Mathis’ protégé, the until then little known Rudolph Valentino (photo, left), to worldwide superstardom, as The Four Horsemen became one of the biggest box-office hits of the silent era. Ingram’s wife, the invariably excellent Alice Terry (right, dark-haired in real life; a light-haired in her many movies), played Valentino's love interest. Ninety-two years after its initial launch, the Four Horsemen remains a monumental achievement. Released by MGM, Vincente Minnelli's 1962 remake of this Metro Pictures production featured an all-star cast: Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin (dubbed by Angela Lansbury), Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb,...
- 4/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The 27th London Lgbt Fest offers tons of screenings in the coming days (Pictured above: Underground transgender superstar Divine in John Waters' 1974 sorta class Female Trouble) This year's London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival officially opened with a gala presentation of Jeffrey Schwarz’s I Am Divine this past Thursday. In the coming week, the festival will be showcasing dozens of features and shorts featuring characters of various forms of sexual orientation and gender identity from all over the world. Among tonight's features is John Waters' 1974 camp classic Female Trouble, starring Waters' muse Divine as a youngster who, after running away from home on Christmas Day, getting raped and pregant, and becoming a single mom, is transmogrified from loving schoolgirl to tough criminal. Waters' stock player Edith Massey plays Aunt Ida, who has obviously spent her life hanging out with the wrong straight crowd, remarking at one point in...
- 3/15/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Camille (1921) is directed by some guy called Ray C. Smallwood, whose IMDb profile looks like mash-up of two different guys, but who knows? We come to the film more interested in it as a vehicle for Nazimova and Valentino, but what actually seduces is the production design and costume design, by Valentino's wife and Nazimova's lover, Natacha Rambova.
Some time before art deco conquered Hollywood, this movie exults in deliciously modern, streamlined yet organic design. Some scenes go on for frankly an indecent amount of time, but we don't care if they're unfolding in opulent boudoirs or night clubs shaped by Rambova.
The movie's self-proclaimed approach, to strip Camille of her crinolines and thrust her into modern society, is amusing echoed in Radley Metzger's softcore Camille 2000 (1969), which likewise floats by on silvery clouds of beautiful people in beautiful interiors (in and out of beautiful costumes).
The screenplay is by June Mathis,...
Some time before art deco conquered Hollywood, this movie exults in deliciously modern, streamlined yet organic design. Some scenes go on for frankly an indecent amount of time, but we don't care if they're unfolding in opulent boudoirs or night clubs shaped by Rambova.
The movie's self-proclaimed approach, to strip Camille of her crinolines and thrust her into modern society, is amusing echoed in Radley Metzger's softcore Camille 2000 (1969), which likewise floats by on silvery clouds of beautiful people in beautiful interiors (in and out of beautiful costumes).
The screenplay is by June Mathis,...
- 2/28/2013
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Elizabeth Hartman and Sidney Poitier in A Patch of Blue (1965)
Look, I can't help it: The Oscars rule. I care about them. I refuse to stop thinking about them. And if you read snicks' recent Oscar snubs piece, you'd refuse too. If you love entertainment, glamor, and winning, you simply have to love the Oscars. And Project Runway. But hey, back to the Oscars! Even the biggest Oscarphiles can stand to know more about the precious gold statuette, and I'm willing to bet most of you don't know about these five nominees, actresses who've faded from public consciousness. Let's revisit the weird and wild catacombs of the Academy's most fascinating forgotten ladies, shall we?
Eva Le Gallienne: Respected Actress, Kickass Lesbian
Before Gloria Stuart hurled an ugly diamond into the Atlantic in Titanic, Eva Le Gaillienne was the oldest woman nominated for an Oscar at age 80 for Resurrection, a...
Look, I can't help it: The Oscars rule. I care about them. I refuse to stop thinking about them. And if you read snicks' recent Oscar snubs piece, you'd refuse too. If you love entertainment, glamor, and winning, you simply have to love the Oscars. And Project Runway. But hey, back to the Oscars! Even the biggest Oscarphiles can stand to know more about the precious gold statuette, and I'm willing to bet most of you don't know about these five nominees, actresses who've faded from public consciousness. Let's revisit the weird and wild catacombs of the Academy's most fascinating forgotten ladies, shall we?
Eva Le Gallienne: Respected Actress, Kickass Lesbian
Before Gloria Stuart hurled an ugly diamond into the Atlantic in Titanic, Eva Le Gaillienne was the oldest woman nominated for an Oscar at age 80 for Resurrection, a...
- 2/9/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
West Hollywood's Laemmle Sunset 5 movie theatre complex, a showcase for numerous independent, foreign, and gay films is about to close its doors. The Sunset 5, where I watched movies ranging from a preview of François Ozon's Swimming Pool to a midnight screening of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, had been in business for nearly two decades. Below is Laemmle's press release: It is with deep regret that we announce that Laemmle will be ending its operation of the Sunset 5 Theatre at the end of November. A mainstay of the Los Angeles exhibition scene since its opening in 1992, the Sunset 5, was vitally important in launching a wave of new directors. Filmmakers such as Todd Haynes (Safe), Lisa Cholodenko (High Art), Doug Liman (Swingers), Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen), Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects), Todd Solondz (Welcome To The Dollhouse), and Bill Condon (Gods & Monsters) saw their films premiere to sell-out crowds at the Sunset.
- 11/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Claudette Colbert, Alla Nazimova, Marion Davies, Charles Boyer: Cinecon 2011 Thursday September 1 (photo: Alla Nazimova) 7:00 Hollywood Rhythm (1934) 7:10 Welcoming Remarks 7:15 Hollywood Story (1951) 77 min. Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan. Dir: William Castle. 8:35 Q & A with Julie Adams 9:10 Blazing Days (1927) 60 min. Fred Humes. Dir: William Wyler. 10:20 In The Sweet Pie And Pie (1941) 18 min 10:40 She Had To Eat (1937) 75 min. Jack Haley, Rochelle Hudson, Eugene Pallette. Friday September 2 9:00 Signing Off (1936) 9:20 Moon Over Her Shoulder (1941) 68 min. Dan Dailey, Lynn Bari, John Sutton, Alan Mowbray. 10:40 The Active Life Of Dolly Of The Dailies (1914) 15 min. Mary Fuller. 10:55 Stronger Than Death (1920) 80 min. Alla Nazimova, Charles Bryant. Dir: Herbert Blaché, Charles Bryant, Robert Z. Leonard. 12:15 Lunch Break 1:45 Open Track (1916) 2:00 On The Night Stage (1915) 60 min. William S. Hart, Rhea Mitchell. Dir: Reginald Barker. 3:15 50 Miles From Broadway (1929) 23 min 3:45 Cinerama Adventure (2002). Dir: David Strohmaier. 5:18 Discussion...
- 9/2/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Director Allan Dwan, actor George O'Brien, cinematographer George Webber, East Side, West Side Are you a movie lover in Los Angeles, unable to travel either to Venice or Telluride? Don't despair. L.A. has its own glamorous film festival this weekend. It's called Cinecon, now in its 47th year. What's more: unlike the vast majority of movies screening at the more highly publicized Venice and Telluride — which will shortly be made available at theaters, DVD stores, or online streaming services — most Cinecon movies are nearly impossible to be seen anywhere else. In other words, it's September 1-5 at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at Grauman's Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard or (quite possibly) never. [Cinecon 2011 Schedule.] This year's Cinecon rarities includes the following: The first Los Angeles area screening in eight decades of Allan Dwan's East Side, West Side (1927), a risque silent drama starring Sunrise's George O'Brien and Virginia Valli, the...
- 9/2/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Conrad Veidt on TCM: The Hands Of Orlac, Casablanca, Nazi Agent Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Above Suspicion (1943) A honeymooning couple are asked to spy on the Nazis in pre-war Europe. Dir: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt. Bw-91 mins. 7:45 Am Contraband (1940) While held up in a British port, a Danish sea captain tussles with German spies. Dir: Michael Powell. Cast: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie. Bw-87 mins. 9:30 Am All Through The Night (1942) A criminal gang turns patriotic to track down a Nazi spy ring. Dir: Vincent Sherman. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne. Bw-107 mins. 11:30 Am Jew Suss (1934) A Jewish businessman using his wealth to benefit his people discovers he's not Jewish. Dir: Lothar Mendes. Cast: Conrad Veidt, Frank Vosper, Cedric Hardwicke. Bw-104 mins. 1:...
- 8/24/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Disablity Film Festival Day, Nationwide
Marking the Un's International Day Of Persons With Disabilities, this day event brings vibrancy, weirdness and a touch of glamour to more than 20 UK cinemas. There are four components: short films from the leading Oska Bright learning disability film-makers' festival; Film Council-funded disability-related shorts; 1986 BBC movie Raspberry Ripple, starring John Gordon Sinclair as a wheelchair user with a gangster movie fantasy life (enriched by a Faye Dunaway cameo), and last and least politically correct, an archive trawl through dated attitudes to disability including a 1920s fundraiser for "the cripples of Leicester" and a 1970s interview with the world's smallest woman.
Nationwide, Fri
Twin Peaks Festival, London
You could say that modern cult TV was born the day that Laura Palmer died, and despite 20 years of X-Files and Losts, it seems that David Lynch and Mark Frost's surrealistic small town full of secrets is still...
Marking the Un's International Day Of Persons With Disabilities, this day event brings vibrancy, weirdness and a touch of glamour to more than 20 UK cinemas. There are four components: short films from the leading Oska Bright learning disability film-makers' festival; Film Council-funded disability-related shorts; 1986 BBC movie Raspberry Ripple, starring John Gordon Sinclair as a wheelchair user with a gangster movie fantasy life (enriched by a Faye Dunaway cameo), and last and least politically correct, an archive trawl through dated attitudes to disability including a 1920s fundraiser for "the cripples of Leicester" and a 1970s interview with the world's smallest woman.
Nationwide, Fri
Twin Peaks Festival, London
You could say that modern cult TV was born the day that Laura Palmer died, and despite 20 years of X-Files and Losts, it seems that David Lynch and Mark Frost's surrealistic small town full of secrets is still...
- 11/27/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Alla Nazimova, Salome (top); Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Mata Hari (bottom) Alla Nazimova’s Salome, Claudette Colbert’s Cleopatra, Hedy Lamarr’s Delilah, and Greta Garbo’s Mata Hari are the four temptresses featured in the "Ornament and the Enchantress" film series presented by Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum. Charles Bryant’s Salome (1923); Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra (1934), co-starring Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon; DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949), co-starring Victor Mature; and George Fitzmaurice’s Mata Hari (1931), co-starring Ramon Novarro, will be screened at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center June 26-27. "Ornament and the Enchantress" will serve as a complement [...]...
- 6/11/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
AFI Fest
Producers are not always in high repute today, so it's worth remembering that there was a time when literate, intelligent producers played a crucial role in Hollywood.
Everyone knows the names of David O. Selznick and Hal Wallis, but Val Lewton is perhaps not so well remembered except among film buffs and historians. A couple of those buffs, producer Martin Scorsese and writer-director Kent Jones, have collaborated with Turner Classic Movies on a telling portrait of Lewton, who reinvented the horror genre during the 1940s. Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows was shown at AFI Fest and will be seen on TCM, where it will be appreciated as one of the network's most penetrating portraits of a forgotten filmmaker.
Lewton was born in Yalta, on the coast of Ukraine, and emigrated to America with his mother and sister. His mother worked as a script coordinator, and his aunt was the legendary actress Alla Nazimova, providing Lewton with family connections in the fledgling film business.
He actually served his apprenticeship under Selznick and then was hired by RKO to head up a film unit specializing in low-budget horror films that might compete with Universal's popular horror entries. Lewton's first production, "The Cat People", cost $130,000 and ended up grossing more than $1 million.
It made film history by introducing subtlety and even visual lyricism into the horror genre. Lewton worked with talented directors Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise, and Mark Robson (the latter two had helped to edit "Citizen Kane" at RKO), but he often rewrote the scripts and supervised every aspect of the bargain basement productions.
The great strength of the documentary is its use of generous clips that convincingly illustrate the artistry of Lewton's films. (No doubt this was possible because Turner owns the RKO library.)
Viewers will savor the elegant style and eerie power of "I Walked With a Zombie", "Curse of the Cat People", "The Body Snatcher", and others. The weakness of the film is its overly verbose narration, which is read by Scorsese himself. (Elias Koteas provides the voice of Lewton in excerpts from his letters and memos.) Sometimes one gets the impression of listening to a Ph.D. thesis rather than a film.
Still, an excess of intellectual chatter isn't the worst sin in the world. Unlike so many trivial, gossipy docus on Hollywood subjects, this one has a heft that is quite satisfying. Interviewees include Roger Corman, who followed in the Lewton tradition, and Japanese director Kyoshi Kurosawa; Jones also makes judicious use of earlier interviews with Tourneur and Wise.
The film argues, with psychoanalytic fervor, that the dark, haunted spirit of most of the Lewton films grew out of the producer's own melancholy temperament. In this sense he was more the auteur of these films than their credited writers or directors. Once the genre had run its course, Lewton tried to branch out to other kinds of films, but with limited success. He died in 1951, at the age of 46. This new film does him proud.
VAL LEWTON: THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
Turner Classic Movies, Turner Entertainment Co.
Credits:
Director-Screenwriter: Kent Jones
Producers: Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde
Executive producer: Tom Brown
Director of photography: Bobby Shepard
Editor: Kristen Huntley
Narrator: Martin Scorsese
Running time -- 77 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Producers are not always in high repute today, so it's worth remembering that there was a time when literate, intelligent producers played a crucial role in Hollywood.
Everyone knows the names of David O. Selznick and Hal Wallis, but Val Lewton is perhaps not so well remembered except among film buffs and historians. A couple of those buffs, producer Martin Scorsese and writer-director Kent Jones, have collaborated with Turner Classic Movies on a telling portrait of Lewton, who reinvented the horror genre during the 1940s. Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows was shown at AFI Fest and will be seen on TCM, where it will be appreciated as one of the network's most penetrating portraits of a forgotten filmmaker.
Lewton was born in Yalta, on the coast of Ukraine, and emigrated to America with his mother and sister. His mother worked as a script coordinator, and his aunt was the legendary actress Alla Nazimova, providing Lewton with family connections in the fledgling film business.
He actually served his apprenticeship under Selznick and then was hired by RKO to head up a film unit specializing in low-budget horror films that might compete with Universal's popular horror entries. Lewton's first production, "The Cat People", cost $130,000 and ended up grossing more than $1 million.
It made film history by introducing subtlety and even visual lyricism into the horror genre. Lewton worked with talented directors Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise, and Mark Robson (the latter two had helped to edit "Citizen Kane" at RKO), but he often rewrote the scripts and supervised every aspect of the bargain basement productions.
The great strength of the documentary is its use of generous clips that convincingly illustrate the artistry of Lewton's films. (No doubt this was possible because Turner owns the RKO library.)
Viewers will savor the elegant style and eerie power of "I Walked With a Zombie", "Curse of the Cat People", "The Body Snatcher", and others. The weakness of the film is its overly verbose narration, which is read by Scorsese himself. (Elias Koteas provides the voice of Lewton in excerpts from his letters and memos.) Sometimes one gets the impression of listening to a Ph.D. thesis rather than a film.
Still, an excess of intellectual chatter isn't the worst sin in the world. Unlike so many trivial, gossipy docus on Hollywood subjects, this one has a heft that is quite satisfying. Interviewees include Roger Corman, who followed in the Lewton tradition, and Japanese director Kyoshi Kurosawa; Jones also makes judicious use of earlier interviews with Tourneur and Wise.
The film argues, with psychoanalytic fervor, that the dark, haunted spirit of most of the Lewton films grew out of the producer's own melancholy temperament. In this sense he was more the auteur of these films than their credited writers or directors. Once the genre had run its course, Lewton tried to branch out to other kinds of films, but with limited success. He died in 1951, at the age of 46. This new film does him proud.
VAL LEWTON: THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
Turner Classic Movies, Turner Entertainment Co.
Credits:
Director-Screenwriter: Kent Jones
Producers: Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde
Executive producer: Tom Brown
Director of photography: Bobby Shepard
Editor: Kristen Huntley
Narrator: Martin Scorsese
Running time -- 77 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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